Poor and vulnerable people in developing countries are facing ever greater and deeper shocks and stresses to their livelihoods. These include those of a global nature, such as the 2007 financial crisis, as well as more localised ones, for example floods and droughts. All make it increasingly difficult for poor people's usual coping and risk-management strategies to prove effective in protecting their livelihoods – with often dire implications for their wellbeing.

Interventions in the fields of Social Protection, Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction all aim to reduce vulnerability to such shocks. But so far these three communities of practice have worked in isolation. Adaptive Social Protection recognises that greater integration and knowledge sharing among these three communities of practice would increase the chance to have more impact on people’s vulnerability and help them escape poverty.

About the ASP programme

The Adaptive Social Protection in the Context of Agriculture and Food Security Programme (ASP Programme) explores and highlights the benefits of an interlinked approach to risk reduction and resilience building in rural areas of developing countries. It takes into account evidence from social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in order to help governments, practitioners and development agencies reduce poor people's vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and other shocks.

The ASP Programme is managed by and based at the Centre for Social Protection (CSP) which is based at IDS. It is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

Join the ASP network and sign up to the ASP newsletter by emailing: asp@ids.ac.uk

See the Eldis Key Issues guide on adaptive social protection for more information.